Son of Strategy
by MorgothII
Summary: Riley O'Brian is a kid who does well in school. He lives a simple life. What he does not know, however, is who is mom is. Read to find out what happens.
1. Chapter 1

** Chapter 1: A Whole Lot of Surprises**

The morning was like any other morning. I woke up, got dressed, and had breakfast with my father before he went for work. My father was a tall man, standing at six foot four. He currently teaches at the Naval Collage at Annapolis. He taught naval history warships and battles that they fought in. We lived several hours away in a rather rural environment. Our house is two stories tall. Normally we rarely see people around here.

Lately, however, there has been an unusual amount of activity going on. Several people and animals seemed to be watching us, as crazy as it seems. It made both of us very nervous though. My dad recently started to have his pistol that he always locks in the safe loaded, and I have developed a way to let him know if something was wrong and I couldn't write it down. Still, he wasn't happy about leaving me behind, since it I didn't have school for several weeks and that it had seemed to be more activity around here.

"Are you sure that you will be okay?" He asks me as he is about to go through the door. "Yeah, don't worry. I'll let you know if something is wrong. See you later," I tell him. With that, he goes out to the car and drives to work. I watch him go and then close and lock the door. Then I head up to my room and grab a book. I spend a few hours reading it. After that, I get restless and head out back. I spend about ten minutes looking at the view. The backyard was not fence and it was a nice place about now.

I am about to head back inside when I hear a whine. I turn around and see a small dog, barely a puppy. My granddad had a dog and I loved playing with it. Of course, both have been dead for several years now, but I still am hoping to get a dog of my own. I kneel down and pet the dog's head. "Hi boy," I say. "Are you lost?" At this the dog seems to be excited and starts wagging its tail. I get up and start to walk to the kitchen to give the dog a treat, some pieces of steak from last night's dinner, when I hear a deep growl.

I stop and turn around. Standing where the small puppy was, a huge, black dog is standing in its place. I am frozen in my place by a combination of both fear and shock as I watch the hound leap towards me. When I see the huge claws extended towards me, the only thought that I have in my head is, _I am dead meat._ Then, from out of nowhere, an arrow protrudes from the dog's neck. I watch as the body first drops to the ground about a foot from me. Almost at once, the body seems to dissolve into shadows or something like it. Then I hear a voice.

"Are you all right?" Once again I turn around and see the speaker. I am yet again surprised by what I see. If I didn't know better, I'd say that I am having a really bad dream or something. A man is standing there. Well, except for the legs. They are furry and, wait are those hooves?! I nod to answer his earlier question.

"Good, we need to go now. There are more on their way," the hoofed man says, running towards me. I stand my ground though. "Why should I go anywhere with you? I don't even know you!" I say. He makes a face of irritation at me. "Listen, if you don't come with me, you will probably be ripped into teeny tiny pieces. Understand?" I nod at this. "Glad that you understand. Now can we go?" He says.

"Wait, I need to get something," I say as I dash up to my room. When I get there, I grab two things: the first is my pocket knife that I have in its case in the bottom drawer of my dresser. The second are a pair of binoculars that were given to me by my grandfather. With that I head down the stairs. "Alright, let's go." The hoof man says as I come down. "Wait what about my father? If he comes home and I am gone, he'll go ballistic," I say. "I got that cover. Let's go."

We go outside to a car that I assume belongs to hoof man here. We get in, and he starts driving. I watch as my house gets smaller and smaller. When it is out of sight I ask a question. "Where are we going?" The man grins. "The safest place for people like you, Camp Half-Blood."

**MorgothII: I know, I know, not my best piece of work. But the next chapter should be much better. As always, both R&R and enjoy!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Meetings**

As I sit in the car, my mind is running at a rapid pace, processing the events of the past hours this day. First I remember the (what did he call it, a hellhound?) attacking me, then the hoof man, Jack, saving me. Of course, after asking where we were going, I had refused to talk. Then my mind wanders around again, and I look at the binoculars.

They were my grandfather's service binoculars. He had served as the captain of a _Flowers_-class corvette in the Royal Navy during World War II. He didn't talk much about, especially since my grandma died. What I did know was that his ship was one of the many ships that escorted convoys in U-Boat-infested waters. His ship even managed to sink several of the subs during the war. I am roused from my thinking by the (goat?) man telling me, "We're almost there. We're walking for the rest of the way," he tells me.

I have refused to talk so far, so I just nod and get out of the car silently. I lose track of time during the rather uneventful walk. Soon I see strawberry fields and I wonder what the hell I am going to. I don't think this out loud, however, and continue walking slightly behind goat man. Soon we are near the field and continue walking. After several minutes, the goat man stops. When I stop, it is all I can do not to drop my jaw. In front of me is a bunch of buildings, some of them in a shape of a U, others in different positions. The man goat turns around with a slight grin on his face. "Welcome to Camp Half-blood," he says. "Chiron will want to meet you by the Big House. Come on."

I fall him over to the biggest building on camp, still keeping my silence. It is almost nighttime here. When we get to the building, my guide leaves me after telling me to head around back. I gather my courage for a moment, then head towards the back. When I get to the back, I am once again astounded. Standing is a man with horse legs! I also see a table and a pudgy man in a Hawaiian shirt on is sitting in one of the chairs there. My attention is redirected towards the horse-man speaking.

"Greetings, I am Chiron," He says in a rather kind tone to me. I speak for the first time in hours. "Hello," I say cautiously. "Why don't we sit down?" He asks me. I nod and take a seat. I watch in amazement though as Chiron sits down into a wheelchair. Somehow his lower horse body is gone and in its place is a human's one. "Do you play cards?" The pudgy man says to me in a bored tone. "No, but I do a good game of chess however," I reply to him. He snorts in what I think is disgust.

"Anyways," Chiron says, glaring at the pudgy man. "You are probably wondering what is going on." I nod at that. "Something along the lines of that," I say. What I am actually thinking is quite a bit stronger than that but it would be better to leave it unsaid. "Before I begin, I would like it if you would not interrupt," Chiron tells me. I nod and listen.

At first, I think that this is complete bull. The monsters and gods of Greek mythology are real, that he is a centaur, and that my guide, Alder, was a satyr. Then I stop and think. Once I do this some things seem to make sense, one in particular. "So wait, your saying that my mother, whom I have never met, is a god? And that makes me a demigod?" This time Mr. D speaks up. "An annoying one, but yes." I take several deep breaths to keep myself calm. "So what now? I mean first of all someone needs to tell my dad or else he'll call FBI and there will be a whole lot of explaining to do," I say. Chiron looks at me thoughtfully for a moment. Then he speaks.

"I will let your dad know about the situation, don't worry. As for you, we'll have to wait to see which god will claim you," he tells me. All of a sudden, I see a silver flash that seems to be just above my head. I look up and am again amazed for however many times since this morning. Above my head is a silver owl. A few seconds later it just vanishes. "Well, that was quick," Mr. D comments. Chiron nods solemnly at that. "Indeed .Greetings Riley, son of Athena." I just look at them with my jaw slightly a gaped. "Why don't I introduce you to your siblings?" Chiron asks me, getting up. Still too stunned to speak, I nod. He starts walking to the buildings that were in the shape of a U. I silently follow behind him.

After several minutes, we arrive at one of the buildings. Upon closer examination, I realize that they are cabins. The one that we're at is blue and gold, and has a six on it. Inside it are dozen kids. They are too busy to notice us until one of them looks up. The girl is blonde and has grey eyes. "Annabeth, we have a new camper for number six," Chiron tells her. I have a feeling that Annabeth is in charge of this group. "He's been claimed?" She asks him and he nods. "I'll leave you for you to introduce each other," he says as he leaves. Once he is gone, I find myself surrounded by the campers.

"What's your name?" Annabeth asks me. "Riley. Riley O'Brian," I say. Another camper looks at me curiously. "Wait, you're Irish?" He asks me. Okay, that was not exactly the right thing to say. One of the few things that I don't like is any insults to my family's heritage. "My father is. Is that a problem?" I ask, with barely a slight hint of anger. The guy realizes his mistake quickly. "No, just curious, that all," he reassures me.

"Then why did your dad come here?" Yet another camper asks. I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know. My grandfather had served in World War II and a about six years later after my father was born, he decided to move to Maryland," I say. After that it is mainly everyone properly introducing each other. Since dinner is already over, I decide to go to sleep even though I'm hungry and wait till morning to eat. Soon I'm shown to my bunk and I pretty much collapse into it, dead tired.

Before I close my eyes, however, I quickly replay the events of today in my head. It's actually somewhat funny, today. This morning I woke-up expecting to just have another usual morning. Then I find out that there are monsters and gods. If that isn't enough, I'm apparently the son of a goddess. Before I fall asleep, my last thought is this. What will happen next? Before I can even attempt to address the question, I close my eyes and darkness quickly overcomes me.

**MorgothII: And finished! Another chapter of Son of Strategy is completed. I made this story to be rather an introduction of some of my characters of my latest plan of stories, so this will probably be a little bit of a short story. Next chapter will be fun though, and if you're curious, this takes place sometime before the Lighting Thief. As always, both R&R and more importantly enjoy!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Of Flags and Dreams**

**MorgothII: Shalom readers! Welcome back to another chapter of Son of Strategy. This takes place a month after the last chapter. During this time, Riley is at camp for the summer and about to play his first game of capture the flag.**

When I hear the horn, I get my gear ready. After putting on my armor, I take my weapon out of its sheath. It is a long sword, made out of Celestial Bronze. When I picked the sword up, it seemed to just become an extension of my arm and I knew that I had found my blade. I also grab my binoculars just in case and sheath my sword. Once that is done, I head to the Pavilion. Once I get there, I group myself with the rest of my siblings. Once everyone gets here, Chiron starts to speak. He mainly lists the rules of the game. I am a bit anxious to get started though.

Our team is the blue team and the cabins are Athena, Hephaestus, Demeter, and Apollo. Our biggest opponents on the red team are Ares and Hermes, Hermes mainly because of their large number of campers. Unfortunately for our team, the other team gets Zeus's Fist. We get the woods, but they get a great view to make any attempts to sneak up to steal the flag virtually impossible. And I have no doubt that the red team will make additional defenses.

My thoughts are interrupted by the second blowing of the horn which signifies that the game is ready to begin. I plan out how to say my request while my team heads to the woods. Once we are there, I wait a little longer so that we can try to dig in a little bit. After about fifteen minutes or so, I then speak to Annabeth. Before I speak though, I take a deep breath to steady my nerves.

"Hey Annabeth, I have something to ask you," I say to her. She turns around and looks at me. "What is it?" She asks me, with just a slight hint of irritation in it. I can't really blame her though. Being in charge of a lot of people doesn't seem either easy or fun for anyone. However, I continue with my plan. "I was wondering, could I go and scout out the enemy's encampment?" I ask her. Annabeth ponders the question for a few minutes, while I stand a bit uncomfortably. Finally, I get my answer. "Yes, but on two conditions. The first is that you don't engage anyone unless it is unavoidable. The second is that I send someone with you to cover your back. Understand?" She tells me.

I nod at this and then I head towards the edge of our temporary encampment. Once I get there, I stand by one of the trees and wait. After five minutes or so, I hear footsteps. When I turn in the direction of them, I see who my partner is. Robert Baulton of Cabin Nine, son of Hephaestus. He is a huge man with black hair and towers at five foot eleven, taller than my five foot eight. He also wields a pole hammer, with which I have no doubt that all but maybe the heaviest armored foes can withstand one good blow from it, instead of his usual mace and shield. "So, are you ready to start doing so scouting?" I ask him. "You better believe it. Now let's move out!" I tell him. We start jogging towards an area of woods that is facing Zeus's Fist and the sun's rays are behind us to try to minimize any reflection of light on our armor.

About ten to fifteen minutes later, we arrive at our position. I use hand gestures to tell Robert that we need to be quiet for now. I then make sure that I can see well. Once I do that I get out a map that I brought with me to draw up the enemy's positions. I then lift my binoculars up to my face and look at the enemy line. It seems that the enemy has positioned most of its troops surrounding the hill line on the slopes. I draw these down on my map to show command later. After about half an hour of doing so, I signal to my college that we need to go back now.

Taking careful precautions, I lead Robert back to command. We see several enemy patrols on the way back, but we manage to avoid them. After about twenty minutes, Roberts and I are at command telling Annabeth and the other leaders of our discoveries. After showing them the maps, everyone falls quite until Annabeth speaks up. "What would you do for this situation?" She asks me. I am a bit taken aback by this and so it takes a few minutes longer than normal to answer, in addition to the fact that I could make the difference between victory and defeat.

"I would advise making a series of skirmishes all along the enemy's front. Then at night, launch a near full out attack on their position. While the main group is fighting here," I say, pointing at the front part of the enemy's position. "Someone should lead a smaller group at the back to steal the flag here," I say, pointing at first at the backside of the hill, and then the top, where the flag is located.

"Once that group has stolen the flag, they will retreat to this point right here," I say, pointing at a new point in the woods. "Where there will be an escort force to give them cover while they fall back to our positions," I finish saying. There is a few minutes of silence as the leader think about my recommendation. Then Annabeth speaks to me. "If you can lead the second group, can you get the flag?" I think about this for a minute. "I can't guarantee absolute successes, but I can say that we would stand a very good chance of it succeeding," I tell her. "Okay, you should pick out those that you want to be part of the team. Dismissed," she tells me.

I nod and Robert and I leave the area. Another half an hour later I have a half dozen campers as part of my force. My sibling Malcom is leading the escort force of eight campers. Four of them are Apollo's children, the rest a mixture of fighters from the other groups. I tell my group to get some shut eye while we wait for night. I discuss particulars of the part of the plan that involves our forces with Malcom and Robert. Once we finish that I tell Robert to wake me up in a few hours.

My dreams are a blur of odd images. A dark image inside of a steel construction, sounds of explosions, shouting, and me giving out orders that I cannot distinguish. Then I see an image so disturbing, my blood runs cold at it. A muscular demigod in blood red armor wields a large battle axe. A black cape is coated in a substance disturbingly akin to dried blood. The face is hidden by a visor of bleached bone. And the sight of his helm nearly makes my heart stop. The skull of some horned animal, an elk maybe, is rested on his head. The tips of the horns are stained with blood.

I am grateful when Robert wakes me up. It seems to be mid-afternoon. "Thanks, I'll take watch till it's time," I tell him. Robert nods and heads to the area where I was sleeping and almost immediately falls asleep. While I am awake, I start to reflect on the dreams that I had. I quickly dismiss the the first ones. Then I come to the horned soldier that I dreamt about. Even now I can still see the red armored soldier as if he is right in front of me. I barely suppress a shiver of horror at him. But as disturbing as the image was, it leads to a bigger question, who is he and will I ever meet him?. I ponder this for some time and eventually I decide to maybe tell someone of this later.

I spend the next few hours mentally going over all the possible problems of my plan. Eventually the sky starts to grow dark. I start to rouse my team to get them ready. Once they are up, they start getting their equipment together. By the time they are finished, it is nearly dark. A few minutes later, a messenger gives the order to get into position. I tell Robert and Malcom to get the two teams moving. Oddly enough, once we are moving to our position, we meet no resistance or patrols. I guess that the enemy is too preoccupied to send out patrols. After a quarter hour, we arrive at our location. The escort team takes cover behind trees and we all wait.

After a few minutes, we hear the sound of clanging weapons and shouts. There's the signal! "Get ready to move out!" I whisper to my teammates. I wait five minutes as I was told. After that, I gesture to my comrades to move out. I draw my long sword out of its sheath and silently move forward. The rest of the team moves out behind me. We move like shadows on the hillside. Soon I spot the stone that is holding the flag. The guards are facing away from us, so I gesture to the others to wait for my signal. I gesture for two of the fastest people on our team to grab the flag and bring it back here, Then I gesture to the others to get ready to temporary attack the guards. I wait a few minutes as the others get into position. On my mark, we attack.

The enemy had no idea about our sneak attack. The guards are slow to react and in the few minutes we distract them the other two members of our team steal the flag and start running. "Fall back! Fall back! Retreat!" I shout to my other team members as we fall back. The guards chase us down the hills and shout out alarms. However, the rest of the opposing team is a bit slow to react to this series of events. Soon we reach the escort team. The flag's guards though are nearly on top of us. "Go!" I shout at the two teams. "Get the flag and get the hell out of here! I'll hold them off!" Robert nods at me and they sprint off. I turn around and face the eight guards bearing down on me.

The first one wields a spear and tries to ram the shaft into my gut, but I sidestep it and knock the hilt of my sword into his helmet. He crumples like a beanbag and doesn't get back up. I guess I knocked him out for now. A few minutes later and two more guards lie unconscious. As I knock out a fourth one, a curved blade streaks towards me. I barely mange to block it when I realize what the blade is and who is wielding it. It is the saber of Clair Brekwald, daughter of Ares. If you did not know who her dad was, you could have thought of her as anything but a child of the war god. However, she was as good at fighting as her siblings were.

"Where is the flag punk?" She says to me while slashing with her sword. "By the time you find it, it'll be too late," I say, half taunting her. With a growl she lunges at me with her sword. Wow, that was a really stupid thing to do. The three remaining conscious guards step back and watch the fight between us. I start to give ground slowly, then more and more quickly. I am quick to realize that I am both outmatched and, with the additional reinforcements of the enemy team, outnumbered. I block once more and then turn tail and run for safety.

As I run through the undergrowth, I hear the snapping of branches and twigs as at least two dozen enemy soldiers chase after me, with Clair in the lead. I run with all my might, pushing myself to the limits. If I don't reach cover soon, I'll be captured, and that is not an option. I lose track of time, but soon I am near my team's line. I see one of my siblings and wave at him while I run past him. He shouts something but I am unable to hear it in time. Suddenly, I crash into my teammates who stop me and start speaking almost as one. Finally, I can't stand it and say, "What is going on?" Everyone falls silent at that until Robert speaks up. "We won! Riley your plan won us the day!" I am speechless with pride and only the sound of angry muttering reminds me of who is chasing me. I turn around to see my pursuers looking at me with some nasty expressions on their faces. "Hey," I call out. "Good game."

Clair and the others don't respond and just head back to their own teammates. The next few minutes are a blur. My team is celebrating our victory and I lose track of how many people congratulate me on my plan. Apparently someone had told some other demigods that I had come up with the plan that achieved victory. Of course, they are not wrong, but still, I am a bit uncomfortable with all the attention. After a while, I excuse myself and go looking for Chiron. After several minutes I find him. I go up to him and ask him if I can talk to him in private. Maybe he some the look in my eyes, but he nods and leads me to the back of the Big House. I sit down in the chair and tell Chiron my dream. When I get to the part of the horned warrior, his face grows solemn. "Do you have any idea who that man is?" I ask him. "Cause I have no idea myself."

Chiron looks at me and speaks. "Riley, first of all, you must understand that this may in fact be just a dream. However, since you described him so vividly to me, I think that perhaps you might have had a small vision of your future. Demigods do have some weird dreams that are of current, past, and even sometimes future events," Chiron tells me. "So you are saying that this man is real, that I could possibly meet him in the future?" I ask him. He nods and continues speaking. "That could be a possibility. But for now, let us keep this to ourselves for now." I nod in response to that, understanding the reasoning. If people found out, it could possibly cause a large panic in the camp. After that, I head to my cabin. Today has been a long day and so I am pretty tired. Once I am in bed. I quickly fall asleep.

**MorgothII: And I have just finished my longest chapter ever. We are getting close to the end of this story, because I made it to serve as an introduction of my characters in my next book. As always, both R&R and enjoy!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: A New Camper**

**MorgothII: This is the last chapter in Son of Strategy. I will continue the story in The Silent Hunter. As always, both R&R and enjoy!**

I am outside taking watch with Robert. Ever since our meeting at capture the flag, we have become good friends. The sky is dark out, and I am starting to get a bit bored. But since I am on duty, I have to wait for the next shift to replace us. I sigh. When we started watch, we talked a bit about our life's. I told him how my father is currently teaching at the the Naval Academy. Then he told me how his mother is also in the navy as a mechanic. This interests me. I also find out that we have both interest in the navy and that we both play chess. We have both agreed to play against each other sometime later. Not now though, mainly because we are on duty. Another good reason is that we don't have a board or set to play with.

"Hey Robert, how much longer till we're relieved?"I ask my friend. "I think in about a quarter of an hour," he tells me. I shake my head. "I can't wait till we're relieved for the night. I'm so…" I trail off. For a moment, I thought I heard some sort of roar and shouting as well. I turn to Robert. "Did you hear that?" From his startled expression, I'd say so. Then the shouting gets louder. So does the roaring. It sound vaguely like a… "Oh damn! Robert you get Chiron! I'll get Annabeth!" I shout. Robert just grunts as he runs off to the Big House. I sprint with all my might to my cabin. Once I get there, I walk over to Annabeth and shake her shoulder. "Annabeth, wake up! We have a problem!" I hiss through my teeth.

Fortunately, she wakes up quickly. When her stormy grey eyes look at me, she realizes that something is wrong. "What is it Riley?" She asks me. I think that there is a monster chasing a group of people outside. I have already told Robert to alert Chiron," I inform her. She nods. "Good, now head out there to see if you can help. I'll get the others ready." I nod and head back out at full sprint.

When I get to the sound of the commotion, it has already died down. I see two bodies and fear the worst. Then one moves the satyr. I run over to see if I can help, but he tells me to help the over one. When I get over there, I feel for his pulse. It is very weak. The good news is that I know how to give basic first-aid. The bad news is that this is most definitely not basic. My god, the boy's almost seems to be bleeding like a pig. I look for the wound and discover that, while there is an external wound, there may be internal bleeding. I rip off some of my shirt and use it as a bandage on the wound to try and stop the bleeding.

Soon I hear footsteps. Are they friend, or foe? I take a risk, knowing that if I don't the boy is sure to die. "Over here! We got two wounded!" I shout. I listen as the footsteps head towards my direction. Then to my relief, I see that it is Annabeth and some others. "I've tried to stop the bleeding, but there could be internal damage. I didn't check the other," I inform her. She nods at this. Then she stars to give orders "Alright, let's get these two to camp." I nod and help lift the demigod. As we head back to camp, I wonder who he is, and if he will survive. I then notice that he his holding in his hand a horn. My suspicion has been confirmed. He must have beat it with only his hands. I really do hope he survives.

**MorgothII: And finish! I know that this is a short story, but the sequel will be longer.** **Anyway, three things I've got to mention. The first is, can you guess who the demigod is? The second and third things are both R&R and enjoy!**


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